January 21, 2013 - The time is far spent

Well things are just moving right along here in Chile!

We are teaching a really great family right now, and it is funny because every time we go to the house there is a new family member there. It is a big extended family that all live in the same neighborhood, so we just teach whoever seems to be at the house:) And they are so great because they feel the truthfulness of what we teach. It is really exciting to see them learn these beautiful truths as a family!

This week I will attend my last mission conference. In this conference I will have to bear my testimony, they have all the missionaries who are going home share their testimony in the conferences before they leave. Nerve-wracking. It is like having to sum up all you've learned in the last 18 months in 2 minutes. Impossible. I'll tell you next week what I come up with.

So the other day my companion and I were singing hymns in English and putting them with other tunes (that's something you do when your companion is a really musically type person:) Anyway we come across this hymn, The Time is Far Spent (Hymn 266), which has a really fast, pressing tune, and then we discover that you can sing these words to the tune of the hymn As Sisters in Zion. So we do it, thinking it sounds super pretty when all of a sudden we get to the last verse and my companion and I both start crying. Then we look at each other and start laughing and my comp says ''geez these lyrics are super powerful!'' On top of that it is so appropriate for me and my time in the mission which is quickly running out.

Here are the lyrics:) Sing them to the tune of As Sisters in Zion, but beware...it might make you cry:)

1. The time is far spent; there is little remaining
To publish glad tidings by sea and by land.
Then hasten, ye heralds; go forward proclaiming:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven's at hand. 

2. Shrink not from your duty, however unpleasant,
But follow the Savior, your pattern and friend.
Our little afflictions, tho painful at present,
Ere long, with the righteous, in glory will end.

3. What, tho, if the favor of Ahman possessing,
This world's bitter hate you are called to endure?
The angels are waiting to crown you with blessings!
Go forward, be faithful, the promise is sure.

4. Be fixed in your purpose, for Satan will try you;
The weight of your calling he perfectly knows.
Your path may be thorny, but Jesus is nigh you;
His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose.

Other than that I am doing great, trying to prepare myself mentally to leave a place I now consider home. Beware I am coming home Chilean:)

When I was younger I never wanted to serve a mission, but now that I have it seems like going on a mission was always in the plan. Heavenly Father knew I would serve a mission in Chile since the beginning...I just didn't know it. But now that I have come here, I can't imagine my life without Chile. It's like a part of me always was Chilean. It has been a sweet and humbling experience.

With love, Hermana Bowns
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